As the number of users viewing information and purchasing items electronically increases, there is a corresponding increase in the amount of advertising revenue spent in electronic environments. In some cases, advertisements are targeted to specific users or to specific web pages or other interfaces to be displayed to users. Advertisements also may be selected based on the content displayed on any number different pages displayed to a user or may also be selected based on search information, such as keywords, entered into a search engine as a user searches for content. Advertisements displayed to a user may also be related to the search results.
Often, the advertisement includes a hypertext link or other user-selectable element that enables the user to navigate to another page or display relating to the advertisement. The page or display relating to the advertisement may provide the user with the ability to purchase the products or services offered by the advertiser either directly from the advertiser or from a provider of the site. Advertisers hope to generate sales by purchasing sponsored advertisements for display to users most likely to be interested in purchasing the products or services that the advertiser is offering.
A provider of a site, such as an ecommerce website, may offer for sale a number of similar, competing products or services, and the provider may receive offers from multiple advertisers who wish to place sponsored advertisements on the site. The provider of the site will want to maximize advertisement revenue by selecting advertisements for display that provide the highest revenue from the advertisers while also displaying advertisements interesting to users that, when selected by a user, lead the user to the related product or service being offered for sale by the site provider.